currently listening. imogen heap.

[video source: youtube, JustHQFaves]
sunday, sunshine and imogen heap.

bees.

[photo credits: all me (image 1: necklace - erica weiner, compact - vintage)]

i apologize for my lack of posting over the past week! i've been trying to focus on writing and heather organized a "CAGIS" event on saturday of last weekend, so we helped her teach some young girls from the ages of 7-12 about local marine invertebrates! it was lots of fun!

on to the post! some of you might know that i've got a strange interest in bees. i really don't know enough about them to warrant this obsession, but i'm trying my best to learn! i've been reading a book called "plan Bee" by susan brackney, loaned to me by my friend amy (sorry i've had it for ages, even though its only a 200 page read).

some neat bee facts that i didn't know before i read this book:
1. "bees are responsible for pollinating 80% of all the plants on the planet."(i knew the percentage was up there, but i never really realized about how proportionally significant their role actually is...)
2. (i'd had a feeling, but didn't know for sure) - honey, if cured properly (low moisture content and low pH), will never go "bad".
3. martha stewart keeps bees. (now why am i not really surprised by that fact? oh martha... how i love you...)
4.  during the world wars, beekeepers were often allowed to dodge being drafted in order to maintain their hives. with the extensive food rationing in place, honey was a popular way to add flavour to the otherwise bland food available, and the demand for beeswax for waterproofing and lubrication of mechanical parts and bullet casings was high.
5. bees can be shipped through the US mail.
6. swarming is actually a non-threatening, natural process undertaken regularly by colonies of bees in order to divide a colony when space becomes limited. the bees prepare to swarm for weeks, as it takes time for the colony to raise a new queen to leave behind at the old colony site.  the old queen will leave with thousands of swarming bees and wait at a new location until scout bees report back to her with their waggle dance about possible new colony sites!

another thing i like to do, is collect deceased bumblebees during the spring (i've read somewhere that this is death after emergence from hibernation, and read elsewhere that they are males that have died after reproducing?). whatever the reason for their passing, i collect these bees and keep them in specimen jars on my desk at work. morbid perhaps, but i find them beautiful and peaceful to look at.  another thing i like to collect is bee jewelry/pretty things. i love my bee necklace by erica weiner, and my vintage bee compact that my mom bought me as my bridal shower gift. i like my bees.

currently listening. lykke li.

[video source: vimeo, satelite]
wow. listening to this with headphones on a monday morning in the office. dreamy.

the shaw ocean discovery centre, sidney bc.

[photos all taken by me, photo 4: lion's mane jellyfish cyanea capillata, photo 5: anemone tealia/urticina sp., photo 6: orange peel nudibranch tochulina tetraquetra eating orange sea pen ptilosarcus gurneyi, photo 7: china rockfish sebastes nebulosus]

we had a neat time at the shaw ocean discovery centre in sidney, bc today! i was invited by heather, kylee and dawna to join their field trip with the invertebrate zoology class that i used to be a teaching assistant for in past years. i'd never been to the discovery centre before, and its a very neat place!  quite a bit smaller than the vancouver aquarium, but it has some beautiful displays and tanks full of local species, microscopes set up over specimens and a great touch tank at the end of the galleries!  i'm sure as the years progress, it will gain more attention and funding and become quite a spectacular space! 

we saw lots of neat invertebrates (and vertebrates) including a spectacularly huge orange peel nudibranch (nudibranch or sea slug, photo 4) eating its staple favourite, an orange sea pen (ptilosarcus)! it was almost a foot long! we also got a chance to see a female octopus tending to strings of eggs that she had laid in her den in one of the overhead tanks! very cool!

we also ran into some great friends of mine and my parents, ted and dana and their daughter (a neat new friend of mine), sarah, who is visiting from tokyo! all in all a great day out!

fall mushrooms and fungi.

[photo credits: all me.]

these are only a few of the amazing specimens that i've come across in my short walk through the forest to my office at uvic! i wish i knew what they all are! i've been eyeing this field guide "mushrooms demystified" by david arora, for years after i used it in chapters to identify the top image of the coral fungi, but have never actually bought the book! now that i have all these photos of these neat mushrooms and fungi, i might have to invest...

currently listening.

[video 1 source: youtube, islandrecords; video 2 source: vimeo, wfnx]

happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving everyone! i'm lucky enough to have been able to head up to my parents place in roberts creek for thanksgiving! mom made us a fantastic roast chicken :) have a great long weekend!

inspiration of the day.

[original source: samesoso]

this stunning photo of actress/singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg that i found posted on a new favourite wedding blog of mine, "grey likes weddings", caught me off guard yesterday. i love the pinky cream and grey, the lush cascade of feathers next to the the patterned silk textures, very peaceful and warm.

larval poetry.

[not so great photo credits: me]

"the veliger's a lively tar, the liveliest afloat,

a whirling wheel on either side propels his little boat;

but when the danger signal warns his bustling submarine,

he stops the engine, shuts the port, and drops below unseen."

an excerpt from my favourite larval poem, about a larval snail of course, "The Ballad of the Veliger or How the Gastropod Got its Twist".  this poem, and many others, can be found in an amazing book i was so fortunate to come by a few years ago (a free giveaway left on a table in the hall in the biology department).  the book is called "larval forms and other zoological verses" by walter garstang. a modest 76 page collection of poetry devoted to the marine invertebrate (and a few vertebrates) larva.

green wedding shoes blog!

[photo credits: jamie delaine photography]

some of our wedding photos shot by jamie delaine are part of a neat new post called "pretty pretty parasols!" on the website "green wedding shoes" today!
as i mentioned before, we rented these amazing umbrellas from the fantastic bella umbrella boutique in seattle, washington. the styles we rented are #381, 477, 803, 841, 928 and 1095.
thanks again to bella umbrella, jamie delaine and to greenweddingshoes.com for including us!

side project, okanagan wedding.

[photo credits: both me.]

a friend of mine is getting married next year in kelowna, and i'm tinkering around with some centrepiece ideas. some preliminary ideas: fruit, magnolias, butterflies...

movies, part 1.

[starwars ABC artwork by tweedlebop, planet travel posters 1, 2, 3 and 4 by justin van gendersen, movie poster by andy helms]

if anyone was ever to ask me to choose my favourite movie of all time, i would have to answer, hands down, "star wars".  i grew up watching "star wars" with my family, and whenever i want to feel like i'm back home again, watching the trilogy takes me back there instantly.
now, if i had to choose which specific movie (from "a new hope", "the empire strikes back" or "return of the jedi"), it would have to be "return of the jedi". obviously i love ewoks and endor, i almost named rohe, "wicket". the forests of endor have always reminded me of british columbia, and more specifically, they remind me of the forest out front of my grandma page's house in west vancouver.  ian and i used to play out there for hours, building stick houses in the trees and pretending to win the invasion by the empire...

black & white inspiration.

[photographed by inez & vinoodh for isabel marant, seen in Vogue 2009 and 2010]
this ad campaign for isabel marant's fall/winter 2010 (and the leopard coat from autumn/winter 2009) collection really stood out to me.  it looks so effortlessly classic and i'm loving that even through the black and white, the clothing seems so vibrant and exciting. perfect for fall, cozy but strong.